DR. LOIS K. COHEN
Résumé
Consultant
Lois K. Cohen Associates, LLC
6108 Madawaska Road
Bethesda, MD 20816-3109
(T) 301-229-3451
Email: lkcohen1@verizon.net
Current & Recent Portfolio






National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of
Health (consultant)
Institute for Musculoskeletal Health & Arthritis, Canadian Institutes of Health
Research (consultant & advisor)
Paul Rogers Ambassador for Global Health Research, Research!America
Co-Chair, Friends of the Organization for Safety & Asepsis Procedures (OSAP)
Board Member, Foundation Against HIV/AIDS (FAHA)
World Health Organization /Federation Dentaire Internationale/International
Association for Dental Research consultant for Global Consultation on Oral
Health Through Fluoride
Immediate Past Positions
Dr. Cohen retired in June, 2006, after 42 years of Federal service, as Associate
Director for International Health, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial
Research (NIDCR) where she directed the Office of International Health. From
1989 to 1998, she served as the Director of the Division of Extramural Research and
the Assistant Director for International Health, National Institute of Dental
Research (NIDR), National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services.
Dr. Cohen coordinated and facilitated all intramural and extramural international
research activities including foreign grants and contracts, support of international
workshops and conferences, as well as staff involvement in multi-lateral, bilateral
and organizational representation abroad.
Dr. Cohen served as the Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating
Center for Dental & Craniofacial Research which was established in 1980 under
the umbrella of the NIDR, renamed NIDCR in 1998.
Education
She was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1960 with a B.A. (Sociology
Honors) and completed her graduate studies at Purdue University with an M.S. (Sociology)
in 1961 and a Ph.D. (Sociology) in 1963. An active learner, she has continued to augment
her education in a variety of work-related subjects with a special emphasis on executive
management and leadership skills.
Experience
She served as a Visiting Lecturer in Social Medicine and Health Policy at Harvard Medical
School and Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Howard
University.
Dr. Cohen served for 12 years in the Division of Dental Health, which for a number of
those years was part of the NIH under the Bureau of Health Professions Education.
Subsequently, that Division became the Division of Dentistry and was located in the Health
Resources Administration, U.S. Public Health Service.
She joined the NIDR in 1976 as Special Assistant to the Director and as Planning Officer
(1978). She built the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Communications and served as its
first Chief (1983-1989).
As Director, Division of Extramural Research, Dr. Cohen managed over $160
million in budget and a staff of 44 with hundreds of consultants to provide
oversight for all programming of Institute supported research and research
training grants, cooperative agreements and contracts as well as their scientific
review and fiscal management.
Publications
Dr. Cohen has published over 120 research papers in professional journals in the United
States and abroad. She co-edited four books, including the two volumes of Social Sciences
and Dentistry. The book, Disease Prevention and Oral Health Promotion was released in
April 1995. She co-directed the World Health Organization (WHO) International
Collaborative Study of Dental Manpower Systems in Relation to Oral Health Status, a
study in 10 industrialized nations, and was involved in facilitating the design and conduct
of WHO International Collaborative Study of Oral Health Outcomes, published in 1997.
Organizational Representation
She has served as a consultant to the Institute of Medicine, the National Research Council,
National Academy of Sciences, the World Health Organization and the Pan American
Health Organization's oral health units, the American Dental Association's Council on
Scientific Sessions and International Relations as well as their Council on Scientific Affairs,
the National Council on International Health and the Federation Dentaire Internationale's
(FDI) Science Commission and its Congress and Education Committee. Very active in
professional associations, she is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, having served on its Governing Council and on several Section R (Dentistry)
committees. She was a co-founder and former President of Behavioral Sciences in Dental
Research, affiliated as the Behavioral Science Group of the American and International
Associations for Dental Research (AADR/IADR) and the FDI, and has served on the Board
of Directors and a number of committees of the American Association for Dental Research,
the International Association for Dental Research and the American Sociological
Association and a variety of public health associations. She serves on the International
Advisory Committee of the D. Walter Cohen Middle East Center for Dental Education. Dr.
Cohen also serves on several Editorial Boards, including the journals: Oral Diseases,
African Journal of Oral Health, Journal of Interdisciplinary Dentistry, Middle East
Journal of Oral Health and the Journal of the American Dental Association.
Honors
In 1987 she was the recipient of the Distinguished Senior Scientist Award of the IADR, the
first time the award was given for behavioral research, and in 1988 was named the Percy
T. Phillips Visiting Professor at Columbia University's School of Dental and Oral Surgery.
She received several Public Health Service Superior Service Awards for her work in
international health as well as for outstanding management of extramural research. A
promoter of equal opportunity, Dr. Cohen also has been honored with a Special
Achievement Award. Designated as an Honorary Fellow of the American and
International Colleges of Dentistry, Dr. Cohen also was named as an Honorary Member of
the American Dental Association. In 1989, Dr. Cohen was awarded Doctor of Letters,
honoris causa, by Purdue University, the first sociologist to have been awarded Purdue's
highest honor. In 1995, Dr. Cohen was recognized by the FDI with its Merit Award, for
her outstanding contributions over 26 years to oral health and oral health research in the
global community. In March 1996, she was awarded IADR's first Behavioral Sciences and
Health Services Research Distinguished Scientist Award to recognize her leadership in
conducting and sponsoring the integration of the social sciences in dentistry both in the
U.S. and abroad. In May 1997, Dr. Cohen received the Stuart A. Rice Award for
distinguished career contributions to the field of sociology, an award of the D.C.
Sociological Society. She received the NIDR Director's Exemplary Service Award in July
1997. In October 1997, she received the Honorary Fellowship in the Academy of Dentistry
Internationale. She received awards for special contributions to the Institute and the
Department of Health and Human Services in 1998 and 2000 and a video interview as a
Leader in Dentistry was archived in the National Museum of Dentistry in May 2000. In
2002, she received the IADR Distinguished Service Award for over three decades of
leadership in the oral sciences and for advancing international collaborative research. In
2003, she received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Association of
Public Health Dentistry for her leadership in the socio-dental sciences and global health. In
2005, Dr. Cohen received an Honor Award for contributions to research, research
administration and global health from the Friends of the NIDCR (FNIDCR) and she
received honorary membership in Alpha Omega International Dental Fraternity in 2005.
Upon retirement in June 2006, the FNIDCR established an award in her honor for research
accomplishments in the social and behavioral sciences and international health. In
December 2006, NIH paid tribute to Dr. Cohen with a symposium, “The Integral Role of
Behavioral and Social Sciences in a Systems Approach to Oral Health Research” and the
Philadelphia High School for Girls honored her as a Distinguished Daughter in their Court
of Honor. The International Association of Dental Research’s Behavioral & Social Science
& Health Services Research Group established a Lois K Cohen International Travel
Award.